Mickey Mouse is Public Domain
Ember Knight
Mickey Mouse is public domain. My best friend said this to me, so I’m not gonna fact check it (trust is love).
It’s so hot at first, when I play God. I get a big idea, put down my buckets, and reach for that pointy hat. Power courses through me — the strings swell frantically, tension builds, I text a selfie as the kettle drum hits at 02:05 followed by…silence. Then:
ding!
The fuckin broom is moving. It picks up my buckets, holy shit. My plan is working! Stars and waves are responding to my fingertips, dopamine floods my body in great warm waves, my nipples are hard and my hair stands up like a mad scientist. Oh boy! Little do I know I have set things in motion beyond my control.
Pause the tape. It’s not Fantasia Mickey that’s public domain. It’s that fruitass Steamboat Willie. They fought tooth and nail, changed copyright law itself, to protect and cling to this wiggly diaper mouse who whistles. He’s driving a boat and he’s whistling! But Daddy, I love him! Billion dollar corporations be like ‘I love him’ and he’s literally Steamboat Willy.
I’ve been thinking about sex. The Sorcerer’s Apprentice isn’t a servant, he’s actually learning how to be a sorcerer. For years I’ve used my sexuality to accomplish tasks — make rent, satiate dependency needs, make you click on a link to my art. Like a baby rattlesnake, I’ve overshot the dosage: Heels AND miniskirt AND pushup bra AND I’m high off my ass? With time I grew more subtle, while remaining manipulative: there’s a soft sweater over the pushup bra. The heel is lower. You don’t know you’re being played.
It’s almost enough to make me forget that my pussy is a magic portal to channel human life (I’m sorry, is that too Burning Man for you? It’s just literally true). I was bestowed with a great power at birth. So what if many have it? I have it! This is an ancient and puissant sorcery, capable of creating new people. Not more brooms. Not more buckets.
In the words of Ryan, so i guess we’re back to us, oh cameraman swing the focus — my initial texts have landed me on my back in the moments before a hookup based in no real intimacy. This isn’t what I wanted, but the water has risen too high. Do I take off the hat? No I do not, shit was working just a minute ago. I chop up the broom, call off what I have done, Fin! The Maestro has spoken! We aren’t fucking tonight, ok? Cool.
In silence, each shard quivers. Trembles. Rises up in dark shadows against the dungeon wall. I am not free, in fact I am more bound by the spell than ever. I have created a situation of toxic enmeshment by wielding a power designed to create life. And though I may seem cool as a cucumber, I am drowning, screaming, being flushed down a toilet of my own design. Do I take off the hat? Look man: I don’t know how.
It is only by a divine act of Grace, no act of mine, that God steps in and I am rescued. The sea is parted.
The thing is, Disney still has Mickey Mouse. Why couldn’t they let go of Steamboat Willy? Because he’s sentimental? The beginning of something? The sacred memory? I think it’s an attachment to the moment of creation, the point of first control. To allow him to be changed, be defiled, be used and experienced in other contexts, would be to take off the hat.
This past year, I tried to heal the pain of being cheated on too quickly. I put down my buckets and started conducting the surgery of my own heart. I set benchmarks and goals, I overextended, I threw myself headlong into reconstruction. I ignored my mistrust. I accepted promises I knew were likely rubber. And for a while, it seemed to be working. But this year of our Lord, 2024, Steamboat Willie is public domain. Oh come, let us adore him.
(In the original poem ‘The Sorcerer’s Apprentice’ by Goethe, the sorcerer isn’t angry. He is kind to his retarded apprentice, who is just trying to advance too quickly. He loves his lil guy. God is gentle with me too. I’ve snuck the hat on many times, but God never fires me. He just hands me my buckets.)
ember knight is a youtuber and independent recording artist (she/they/royal ‘we’). she has made things for adult swim and had other things rejected. they are defined by their free work, including an LP of voicemails from ex boyfriends called ‘The Disappointment Cowboy’ and pee-wee-esque webseries ‘The Ember Knight Show’. Our upcoming feature ‘King of LA’ is currently seeking a release, hook it up if u real like that <3.
Photo: @koitheshooter